She told Loose Women she still is not sure if she got married because she wanted to or because of the pressure she was put under.

Diamond married former TV executive Mike Hollingsworth in 1989 and they had five children but are no longer together.

She told the ITV panel show: " I did succumb to a lot of pressure, I never felt the need to be married, to have someone make an honest woman of me, what a horrible phrase that is.

"But there was a lot of pressure for me because I was Britain's most famous unmarried mother back in 1987.

"That was the headline, it was scandalous then. I came under a lot of pressure from my employers."

She added: " I was in breakfast TV at the time and was taken out for a very serious lunch at the Savoy or the Ritz, the full works, and these guys at the top of the tree of our company put a lot of pressure on me.

"They said 'Marry him or else'. They made it very clear they felt they were a family breakfast TV station and I was not projecting the image they wanted me to project of the wholesome married girl with the children.

"I resisted it at the time, I was prepared to say 'OK then, I will walk' because I thought the world was my oyster but then you go home and start the conversation and think maybe the time is right.

"I don't know to this day if I got married because of quite a lot of pressure or whether it was something I really wanted myself."